Photo: ACI Sport
Joshua Dufek claimed his maiden Italian Formula 4 win in the Sunday morning race at Mugello.
Starting from pole, Dufek initially dropped behind fast-starting Van Amerfoort Racing team-mate Ollie Bearman and Prema’s Sebastian Montoya but managed to repass both his rivals to win.
Montoya slipstreamed past Bearman for the lead on lap two and pulled away by almost 0.9s before the safety car was deployed on lap four to recover the stricken car of Jenzer Motorsport’s Santiago Ramos.
When racing resumed with 16 minutes still on the clock Montoya just managed to hold off Bearman. However, as the cars got back up to speed Dufek was on a charge, disposing of Bearman before rapidly closing on Montoya, setting the fastest lap in the process.
Montoya put two wheels onto the grass exiting turn one but retained the lead. However he was unable to resist Dufek at the same corner on the following lap and had to settle for second.
Prema’s Kirill Smal finished third behind, having sat behind the leaders for most of the race without quite being able to get close enough to challenge.
US Racing’s Tim Tramnitz spent most of the race stuck behind race one winner Joshua Duerksen as he tried to move up from eighth on the grid. With Duerksen defending aggressively and testing the limit of the track surface on multiple occasions, Tramnitz was unable to get past.
The battling duo were both able to get ahead of Bearman though in a single move as the championship leader dropped back to finish seventh.
Nikita Bedrin was able to pull onto the tail of Tramnitz in the closing stages and almost took fifth from him on the last lap. Unless Tramnitz can outscore Bearman by six points in the afternoon race, Bearman wins the title.
Lorenzo Patrese, Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Bence Valint enjoyed a close fight for ninth, with Patrese prevailing as Valint spun off the kerbs on the last lap.
Conrad Laursen meanwhile was in the gravel on lap but recovered all the way to 13th.
Race results (16 laps)
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joshua Dufek | Van Amersfoort Racing | 32m31.296s |
| 2 | Sebastian Montoya | Prema | +0.667s |
| 3 | Kirill Smal | Prema | +1.515s |
| 4 | Joshua Duerksen | Mucke Motorsport | +3.766s |
| 5 | Tim Tramnitz | US Racing | +4.136s |
| 6 | Nikita Bedrin | Van Amersfoort Racing | +4.599s |
| 7 | Ollie Bearman | Van Amersfoort Racing | +5.365s |
| 8 | Leonardo Fornaroli | Iron Lynx | +5.547s |
| 9 | Lorenzo Patrese | AKM Motorsport | +7.496s |
| 10 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Prema | +7.514s |
| 11 | Erick Zuniga | Mucke Motorsport | +9.237s |
| 12 | Levente Revesz | AKM Motorsport | +9.990s |
| 13 | Conrad Laursen | Prema | +15.588s |
| 14 | Piotr Wisnicki | Jenzer Motorsport | +17.302s |
| 15 | Hamda Al Qubaisi | Prema | +17.638s |
| 16 | Pedro Perino | US Racing | +18.143s |
| 17 | Maya Weug | Iron Lynx | +23.383s |
| 18 | Francesco Simonazzi | BVM Racing | +24.020s |
| 19 | Nicolas Baptsite | Cram Motorsport | +24.673s |
| 20 | Leonardo Bizzotto | BVM Racing | +27.840s |
| 21 | Oliver Gray | BVM Racing | +27.964s |
| 22 | Kacper Sztuka | Iron Lynx | +29.419s |
| 23 | Jorge Garciarce | Mucke Motorsport | +29.513s |
| 24 | Pietro Armanni | Iron Lynx | +1 lap |
| 25 | Samir Ben | Jenzer Motorsport | +1 lap |
| 26 | Bence Valint | Van Amersfoort Racing | + |
| 27 | Jonas Ried | Mucke Motorsport | +1 lap |
| Ret | Francesco Braschi | Jenzer Motorsport | |
| Ret | Santiago Ramos | Jenzer Motorsport | |
| Fastest lap: Dufek, 1m49.457s
Championship standings 1 Bearman 280 2 Tramnitz 200 3 Montoya 166 4 Fornaroli 161 5 Smal 152 6 Dufek 148 7 Duerksen 111 8 Bedrin 87 9 Laursen 50 10 Vlad Lomko 37 |
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